Rating: 
Summary: What do you mean by "black and white?"
Review: This book is anything but black and white! Yes, I am in high school and this was required reading for me. I also admit that I found it boring at first, especially the first chapter or two. I even favored Gene over Finny for the first half of the book. But those of us who actually read to the end (ahem), would know that this is an insightful, moving, emotional novel that provokes deep sympathy from the reader. Take a hint from me and ignore all of the negative reviews about A Separate Peace that were written by high school students. Honestly, they have no idea what they're talking about.
Rating: 
Summary: Review of A Separate Piece
Review: John Knowles shows his brilliance in this novel. I would come to conclude that A Separate Peace gives an excellent description on the mixture of young innocence and war. Knowles sets the picture in World War II and the author colorfully describes what life was like back in the 1950's. The author brings the reader into the world of a child becoming an adult. The novel provides a historical backdrop of World War II, where fifteen million soldiers were drafted into the military and the harshness of the young men facing conformity and danger of the US armed services. Knowles provides an insight to the enlistment, and what the recruit had to look forward to in basic training with the diversity that separates the group and the team effort needed to survive. The end of the War wasn't the end for these young men's tragedy. The boys suffered from shell shock, major injuries, and the deaths of their close friends. After reading this novel I had a greater knowledge to what kind of harsh life the people my age lived in the 50's. I recommend Knowles A Separate Peace, if you are interested in real-time drama.
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Summary: Made me laugh and cry over and over...
Review: This is such a wonderful book. It tells of more than just a story of friendship, more than just about the effects of war, more than just about a tragedy, it's about all of these and human nature on the whole.It's a wonderful and excellently well-written book, and personally, my favorite so far. It's a wonderful book on human nature and suspision and jealousy and all of the dark emotions of a person. I love the character Finny, and he is definitely one of the most idealistic and simple, yet most complicated character I've ever read (my second Catcher in the Rye's character) I personally recommend reading this to everyone.
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Summary: A Sad Story
Review: The book, A Separate Peace, was about two boys and the war. It was a sad hope of trust betrayal and hate. Finny brakes his leg when Gene pushes him out of the tree. He eventually dies. Gene learns that everyone has there own peace inside and even though every one ios different we all matter
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Summary: A Separate Peace By: John Knowles
Review: A Separate Peace
By: John Knowles This book fascinated me a lot. A Separate Peace portrays the struggle of adolescence and what young adults went through. This novel also depicts the lives of young adults who could not wait to go to World War II. Throughout the novel there is an extreme display of patriotism. Boys are having discussions about war and wanting to fight to defend for what they believe in. This story is mainly focused on these two characters, Finny and Gene. Finny is described as an out going person who creates rules to his own games. He is the type who will joke around and be really slick and get away with it but at the end trouble is calling him. Gene is the opposite of Finny. He is described as the quiet mellow person who keeps to himself and always gets good grades. Gene, later on gets jealous of Finny and this jealousy causes Finny to die from a dare to jump off a tree. I recommend this book because it shows how closest of friends envy each other and ruin friendships in an indirect matter. John Knowles wrote this book in a very well manner and the different perspectives of the relationship of Finny and Gene described in the book do occur in real life. I am sure it relates to many people and they will enjoy reading it just how I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't quite make it
Review: I am a fan of classic works. I loved Catcher in the Rye and enjoyed the Great Gatsby, Ethan Frome was also fullfilling, but this book was completely boring. I am a fan of symbolism and meanfulness of life but this book didn't do it for me. I could only relate to Gene. This, i found was not a good idea after a few chapters. I guess my problem was that I didn't trust Phinny to be a good person. Whatever the reason, I plan not to read this book again.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh.
Review: I know Mr. Knowles was trying to be all mysterious and intellectual, and I'm sure people will tell me that I just don't understand the meaning and the method to his madness, and the inner truth,etc. etc. But seriously how many different words can you use to describe BIG TREE or CRAZY SKITSO PARANOID GENE. I'm sorry if you all liked this book but it's just a bit much. I think the descriptions were 'nice' but there were way too many and the majority of them had nothing to do w/ the tiny bit of plot this story had. My real reaction to this book was Ugh ...I have to write an essay on this due tomorrow...
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Summary: When you're a little older, give this book a chance, k?
Review: I'm sorry, but I have to do this, I have to defend this book, a book that has become a big favorite of mine. The main reason allot of highschoolers absolutely HATE this book is #1, it's required reading, I mean, how many of us really like the books that our English teachers force us to read?? #2, the way the issues this book deal with & how they are presented is a little to complex for the average 14-16yr old who's stuck reading this thing. But all in all, I'm actually here to come to John Knowles rescue when it come to "A Separate Peace"... I too, was assigned to read this book when I was in the 10th grade & I HATED the fact that I was stuck reading this long & what seemed absolutely the most boring freaking book I had ever come across, I couldn't wait for the test to finally come so that we could get over it already. Any way, it wasn't until that summer after my 10th grade year when I was bored one day with nothing to do did I actually pick up the book and REALLY READ it. It wasn't until I was reading the book just because with out the nuisance of knowing that I HAD to read it did I really appreciate and ENJOY this book to no end. I actually ended up reading this book cover to cover that whole day, I never put it down, I had to know what was going to happen next. Not that this book is all that exciting it's that the characters are very vivid, the setting & narration is so explanatory it just sucks you into their world; to this day I can't see how some ppl actually think that this book has no substance & that the characters are bland, they obviously either haven't really read this book with an open mind, or it just wasn't their type of reading. Anyway, moral to this story- read the book either A: when you're not stuck reading it because you have to pass English. Or B: when you're a little older, say 18+ & can actually understand what the heck this book is really saying. In other words, give the book a chance... eventually. It may turn out not to be your type of reading, but that doesn't mean that this book wasn't beautifully written & isn't one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time.
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Summary: Should Not Be a Required Book
Review: The setup of the school and of Phineas' home was remarkable. The plot was just as bad as a Gary Paulson novel; terrible. No flavor or emotions within the narration. Characters were dull and completely black and white. This book should have been excellent, but it wasn't. Beware this book. Do not buy this book. There are many other authors and books that deserve your reading leasure.
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Summary: A Separate Peace. Separate from what?
Review: John Knowles has managed to write almost 200 flowery, descriptive pages, without ever creating anything resembling a plot. One gets so caught up in the description of trees and whatnot, that one fails to see the big picture. While his descriptions help the reader see clearly the setting of the novel, I have found that while caught up in this jumble of adjectives I cannot grasp what is supposed to be happening at the moment. Mr. Knowles utilizes the method of introducing a character through his actions and appearance, which, while creative and interesting, is at the same time tedious and confusing. For example, the reader does not learn exactly what gender the main character is until around page 10. Overall, what I got out of this story was that Gene thinks that Phineas is his rival and pushes him out of a tree, only to learn that he is not his rival after all. However, Phineas is now crippled for life and can no longer play sports. One of their friends enlists in the army, and as a result, goes psycho. Gene also slowly loses his mental stability as time goes on. Then, suddenly, Phineas dies. The explanation given: while setting his leg some marrow must have escaped and stopped his heart. Gene doesn't really appear to care that his best friend is dead. Then there are some more descriptions that have nothing to do with what is going on. On the whole, I think each page is really only worth one sentence, and it would certainly be easier to understand if the author had written it that way. I would like to end this by saying that I would never have read this book, if it were not for our high school teachers forcing us to. Now that I have read it, I do not find that it has enriched my life in any way, or that I have benefited at all from this novel.
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